Staff shortages across industries have continually made the headlines as firms struggle to fill gaps in recent months. We’ve seen the chaos caused across sectors from logistics to hospitality, including the disruption faced within food production, or at airports such as Manchester.
Flexible staffing agency GIG has been trying to turn this around by encouraging more businesses to embrace new ways of working and offering people the chance to find jobs that fit their lifestyles. Now they’re developing their reach in the North West by reopening and expanding their Manchester office.
According to the British Chamber of Commerce 76% of businesses were facing recruitment difficulties in the second quarter of 2022. Amongst these, manufacturing, logistics and hospitality were industries seeing some of the biggest struggles. The knock-on impact this has been having has only exacerbated rising costs and delayed post-pandemic recovery.
GIG are a staffing agency who allow maximum flexibility for their workers and clients, whilst still being able to offer greater protections compared to others in the gig economy.
“The recruitment crisis we’ve seen in the past year isn’t going away on its own, we’ve got to rethink what we offer potential workforces,” GIG’s MD Antony Woodcock said.
For GIG, they see a model where workers can pick when and where they work, how many shifts they need and how often – they’re offered all the training needed to take on new roles too.
For businesses, they can also benefit from greater flexibility. For example, a business that needs a few extra staff to cover busy periods can access GIG’s pool of workers, whereas others may want to offer more regular shifts through the GIG platform.
Antony believes this is the only way we can start to combat staffing challenges: “Central to our ethos is understanding that everyone is different and the types of work they will want to do varies – there’s no one size fits all.
“Parents might want shifts that fit around childcare, more young people are looking for travel and new experiences and need a job to match – these opportunities aren’t always readily available and so we’re excluding valuable workers from the labour force.”
“But that flexibility can be a tricky path for many businesses to take, as they fear uncertainty – we wanted to create a system that gives businesses the opportunity to use flexibility in new ways”
Leading the new office is Tony Carnall. With a long background in hospitality, he’s no stranger to the challenges of keeping the sector and others like it well-staffed.
“I’m excited to be back working with the Team at GIG and getting our Manchester Office set up and running. Manchester has grown so much over the last few years that now feels the right time to bring what we offer at GIG to the city.” Tony said
“My aim is to grow a strong, reliable workforce through regular recruitment and interview days, and building strong relationships with both our clients and candidates past and new.
“Having worked with sectors such as Hospitality, Warehousing and Events, I know how challenging staffing can be – but building strong relationships with our clients and workforces will help combat those issues.”
To learn more about GIG’s new Manchester office, contact: tony@gigtogig.co.uk, or visit gigtogig.co.uk to find out more.
